The Great Plains of Canada

Rur­al Saskatchewan in win­ter is so far removed from the every­day expe­ri­ences of those of us who live in towns and cities in more tem­per­ate areas and just being there height­ens the sens­es. For pho­tog­ra­phers, that increased aware­ness is pal­pa­ble. The north­ern half of the province is almost total­ly forest­ed, unpop­u­lat­ed and large­ly inac­ces­si­ble in win­ter. Dur­ing this tour we will trav­el and explore south­ern Saskatchewan, which, itself is big­ger than France or Germany.

The pris­tine snow and ice which blan­kets the land for the whole of the long Cana­di­an win­ter will pro­vide count­less pho­to­graph­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties. As with the plain of north­ern Amer­i­ca, there is a sub­tle blend of beau­ty and an eeri­ness. The aban­doned rem­nants of the towns, vil­lages and ham­lets which the pio­neer­ing set­tlers left behind are scat­tered across these plains and some come into sight from miles away, alone and ghost­ly. Almost entire­ly built from wood these places are fad­ing into obliv­ion, bat­tered by the weath­er over decades in this bleak land­scape. Being there and pho­tograph­ing the remains of what were people’s homes, farms and com­mu­ni­ties, is expe­ri­enc­ing his­to­ry van­ish­ing before our eyes. Soon, these rem­nants will be gone, and a piece of Cana­di­an his­to­ry will be lost. 

The orig­i­nal set­tlers escaped and migrat­ed to towns and cities leav­ing these rur­al set­tle­ments for­ev­er. Farm­ing the land for those pio­neers was unbe­liev­ably tough. The soils of these land­scapes are of poor qual­i­ty and the sum­mers are fierce­ly hot, in stark con­trast, when the win­ter arrives along with the snows, the tem­per­a­ture plum­mets mak­ing an exis­tence harsh. We will see the old dis­used wood­en grain ele­va­tors, often referred to as the ​‘cathe­drals of the prairies’, some­times stand­ing in splen­did iso­la­tion but occa­sion­al­ly sur­round­ed with oth­er aban­doned build­ings and dis­used rail tracks near­by. We will pho­to­graph wood­en church­es, school­hous­es and farm­hous­es, all frag­ments of the past lives of com­mu­ni­ties. Old aban­doned vehi­cles and farm equip­ment are seen every­where as decay­ing mem­o­ries of the liv­ings the peo­ple had eking out and exis­tence here.

We fly into the provin­cial cap­i­tal of Saska­toon which is where our tour starts and ends. Saska­toon is named for the Saska­toon bush, the berries of which are sim­i­lar to blue­ber­ries and used to make won­der­ful­ly flavoured pies. We then trav­el south east­wards and start a cir­cu­lar route using large four-wheel dri­ve vehi­cles designed for these Cana­di­an roads in the win­ter months. We will stay at good qual­i­ty hotels in places with names like Maple Creek and Swift Current.

Blow­ing snow, mist or rime ice can ren­der a land­scape or a road­side scene irre­sistible to a pho­tog­ra­ph­er. As well as pho­tograph­ing at cho­sen des­ti­na­tions there are always sights to stop for as we dri­ve the lat­tice of roads through­out these vast plains.

Michael Pilk­ing­ton will be assist­ed by his good friend Steve Car­roll who has explored this area exten­sive­ly and has a deep under­stand­ing of these land­scapes of Cana­da. Steve has trav­eled this area of the plains many times in the win­ter and appre­ci­ates the his­to­ry we see remain­ing today. Steve is also a Fel­low of the Roy­al Pho­to­graph­ic Soci­ety. The images you see dis­played here are by Steve who is ready to share his expe­ri­ences with you. 

This trip will take you into anoth­er world and back to anoth­er time. The expe­ri­ence will be exhil­a­rat­ing for every­one. For any pho­tog­ra­ph­er who wants to expe­ri­ence a land­scape so dif­fer­ent in the depths of the win­ter, then this tour is unique.